The Creepiest Restaurants in the World

While some restaurateurs still embrace simplicity, many others reject it in favor of something more…original. As a result, restaurants are becoming increasingly specialized, which can also mean increasingly strange and perverse. Gimmicks are one way to attract customer, and beyond the Rainforest Cafes and Margaritavilles of the world, there are some truly insane concepts out there.

Buildings that are blessed (if you could call it that) with disturbing pasts have built-in intrigue. Others, though, create elaborate alternate universes. There are spots where zombies roam and soup is eaten out of toilets. There’s a restaurant in Indonesia that’s covered in Nazi paraphernalia, and a restaurant in Tokyo where you have to cut open a naked woman’s body to get to your meal. The following restaurants range from classically creepy to just plain upsetting, but each wins points for originality.

From Nazi-themed restaurants to eateries inside of a coffin, here’s a look at the creepiest restaurants around the globe.

Fortezza Medicea

Location: Volterra, Italy
Creepiest aspect: The fact that the restaurant is serviced almost entirely by current prisoners—yes, that includes murderers and thieves
This eatery is set inside a high-security prison and staffed by actual prison inmates. It is open to anyone, as long as you get screened by Rome's Ministry of Justice first. The restaurant was created to give prisoners real-world experience in the food industry to ease their transition back into the job market post-prison—a noble idea, bit still pretty terrifying. Don't fret, though—all of the silverware is plastic.

Nyotaimori

Location: Tokyo, Japan
Creepiest aspect: Eating the (fake) organs out of a (fake) human body
Essentially, this restaurant wheels out an edible naked "woman," complete with dough skin and edible organs, to be cut open by a server and devoured by customers. It is based on the (supposedly popular?) tradition of eating sushi off of a naked woman's body—but this restaurant takes the concept to a whole new level. The “body” is brought out on an operating table and a scalpel is used to cut it open while bloodlike sauce oozes out.

Opaque

Location: Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas, New York City
Creepiest aspect: Dining in the dark
Supposedly designed to enhance the senses, this minichain lets patrons eat in a pitch-black dining room. You are served by blind employees and left completely vulnerable throughout the course of your meal. While nothing scary has happened yet, who knows what really happens in the dark. If you're dying to have a similarly disturbing experience in Europe, hit up restaurant Dans Le Noir in Paris, London, Barcelona, St. Petersburg, or Kiev.

Magic Restroom Cafe

Location: Los Angeles, CA
Creepiest aspect: Treading the line between creepy and just plain gross, this restaurant lets you eat out of a toilet—while also sitting on one.
Based on other popular toilet-themed restaurants, such as The Modern Toilet in Taipei, the Magic Restroom is the first of its kind in the United States. The menu includes items such as "Black Poop," "Golden Poop Rice," and just plain "Stinky Tofu." The names aren't too original, but the concept certainly is.

Twin Stars Diner

Location: Moscow, Russia
Creepiest aspect: Being surrounded by twins in an old Soviet bomb shelter
This Moscow restaurant brings the concept of a twin-filled alternate reality to life. Inspired by the 1964 Soviet film Kingdom of Crooked Mirrors, it exclusively employs identical twins. Wonder how tipping works...

Hellfire Club

Location: Manchester, United Kingdom
Creepiest aspect: Deemed a "Horror Cafe," the restaurant is adjacent to Manchester Cemetery.
Located in a haunted building, this restaurant resembles a dungeon, complete with coffin and human skulls. Waiters dress up like goblins and ghouls, and patrons are encouraged to do the same. The Hellfire Club was originally a name for several exclusive clubs established in Britain and Ireland in the 18th century.

Christon Café

Location: Tokyo, Japan
Creepiest aspect: Your food comes with a side of crucified Jesus
If eating directly underneath bloody statues of Jesus Christ isn't odd enough, the coffin-shaped drink menu should convince you that this place is super creepy.

Donny Dirk's Zombie Den

Location: Minneapolis, MN
Creepiest aspect: Dining inside a zombie apocalypse
Inspired by Shaun of the Dead, this Midwestern restaurant capitalizes on recent zombie trends. It's supposed to be a safe-haven for people to hang out in when the zombie apocalypse inevitably hits. Perhaps counterintuitively, the decorations include decapitated zombie heads and undead bartenders.

Heart Attack Grill

Location: Las Vegas, NV
Creepiest aspect: Being served burgers in a hospital gown and (possibly) having to get wheeled out of the restaurant
Infamous for its high-calorie menu and waitresses outfitted in nurse attire, this restaurant truly is a cardiac nightmare. With burger names like "Quadruple Bypass Burger" and the option to drink wine out of an IV bag, Heart Attack Grill is literally trying to kill its patrons. Sad irony: The Heart Attack Grill's unofficial spokeman really did die of a heart attack last year.

Vampire Café

Location: Tokyo, Japan
Creepiest aspect: Cobweb-covered chandeliers, blood-splattered floors, skeletons everywhere...you get the idea
This creepy restaurant is sure to keep you on your toes—the eerie atmosphere makes you wonder if you're going to become dinner at some point in the evening.

Soldatenkaffee

Location: Bandung, Indoneisa
Creepiest aspect: Nazi paraphernalia everywhere
Undoubtedly the most tasteless of the bunch, this themed restaurant offers the experience of dining in Nazi Germany. You are served by waiters in Nazi uniforms, and the walls are covered in swastikas. Though they claim to celebrate Hitler strictly as a pop icon and not his ideology, the owners' motives remain unclear. The restaurant is currently closed, but it is scheduled to reopen in the near future.

New Lucky Restaurant

Location: Ahmedabad, India
Creepiest aspect: Knowing that there are actual dead people beneath you
The owner seems to believe that the graves randomly scattered throughout the restaurant have brought him good luck, but it is difficult to not get creeped out when dining in the presence of corpses.

Eternity

Location: Truskavets, Ukraine
Creepiest aspect: Eating inside a giant coffin
In addition to being shaped like an enormous coffin, this restaurant has absolutely no windows. Inside, decorations include funeral wreaths and human-sized coffins. Cue the organ.

Manhattan Bistro

Location: New York, NY
Creepiest aspect: The claim that it's haunted by an angry ghost
Built above the spot where 21-year-old Elma Sands died in 1799, this restaurant is supposedly haunted by her vengeful ghost. Sands was pushed into the well that now sits in the basement of the restaurant, and she is apparently still upset that her alleged murderer was never convicted. She makes her presence known by shattering plates and pulling bottles off the shelves.